Tech Topic Connection

Privacy is a distinct human right. It connects to the fundamentals of information technology through the accessibility to information. The information can be found on hardware, software, systems and the internet. Data is present in our everyday lives for example when you online shop and type in our name, address and email address on a website, this is an example of visible data.  There is also less visible data that is being collected through computing. For example, there are firms that specialize in data brokerage where they profile people’s online activity and behavior and use it for marketing. Personal data is captured at such a high frequency that storage and use of the data is becoming an increasing concern.

Computers store data in two different ways, the first of which is call Random Access Memory (RAM). The RAM is an internal component in a computer that is included in the motherboard that allows the computer to store data temporarily. RAM is only in use when the computer is powered on. The other way computers store data is through the hard drive.  The hard drive consists of spinning platter that hold data permanently, even when the computer is not powered on. These hardware components hold the personal and sensitive information of each of its users. Therefore, the important of safeguarding them is essential.

With emerging technology programming languages are being used to combat privacy. Furthermore, with mobile and web applications that manage users’ personal information it requires developers to align their software with privacy requirements commonly described in privacy policies. RSL-IL4Privacy is a domain-specific language that can be simultaneously manipulated by computers and analyzed by humans. It can improve the quality of privacy policies and also identifies threats to validity (Caramujo, 2019). 

Cookies is another way that program language is tied to privacy.  They are small pieces of data from a specific website that is store on a person’s computer while they browse the internet. Keeping track of a user’s browsing activity for ads and remembering login credentials.  Most websites that we visit have a pop up that is programmed to get acceptance for cookies. Depending on how the website uses the website it can be beneficial or harmful.

“In the cloud computing system, both application software and databases are moved to the large data centers, where data should not be secure in the hands of providers (Jaglan, 2015).” This an example of how privacy plays a role in privacy.  The data that is being sent to the data center must also be secured. In this case data is being stored remotely in another locations and customer need reassurance that their data is being protected when using cloud computing as a means to backup data.

Databases also need to be secured. The security plan will depend heavily on the size and nature of the database and on its business requirements. Different objects such as tables, logins, users and roles can be granted permissions to access different securable. This also explains why network architecture, management and security is so heavily influenced by privacy.

 

Caramujo, J., Rodrigues da Silva, A., Monfared, S., Ribeiro, A., Calado, P., & Breaux, T. (2019). RSL-IL4Privacy: a domain-specific language for the rigorous specification of privacy policies. Requirements Engineering, 24(1), 1–26. https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.1007/s00766-018-0305-2

 

Jaglan, V. (2015). Proposing Efficient Approach to Improve Integrity Checking in Cloud Data Security. International Journal of Recent Research Aspects, 2(3), 125–129. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cpid&custid=s8856897&db=a9h&AN=115136867&site=ehost-live.

 

Computers in the Workplace

My chosen industry for is electronic commerce as known as e-commerce. E-commerce is a way of buying or selling goods and services over the internet. Entrepreneurs and business owners have established websites where they can sell their products and services to consumers in a virtual store environment. Essentially anything can be sold over the internet, similar to that of brick-and-mortar stores.

A computer is required to partake in the e-commerce industry. A device that can access the internet is need by both sellers and buyers. Sellers are using computing devices as the home for their virtual store. On a computer the seller can setup the store, manage its inventory, create campaigns, and interact with their customers. Buyers can browse inventory, book services, and complete transactions over the internet.

It is important to sellers in this industry to be computer literate because their known of web design, development and creating an e-commerce store that people will want to visit will affect their bottom line.  The bottom line for e-commerce sellers is to generate revenue for sales made on the website. This means being knowledgeable about product placement on the website, how to run marketing ads and authorizing transactions over the internet.

With the trends in computing and the enhance technology of operating systems and networks the e-commerce industry will continue to boom. More and more people have access to devices that have internet capability. There is a huge convenience factor in being able to purchase groceries, clothing along with other goods and services online.

Network Security

 

   

 Both information and system security are equally important for individuals as it is for

organizations. Information weather it is public or not holds a lot of value, especially in a

technologically advanced World. Personal identifying factors about an individual can be

identified based on their online activity such as geographical location, language usage and face (Vahid, 2017). The internet holds an electronic footprint of activities performed online. The same goes for organizations. Safeguarding their information and systems is very important. If not protected they can experience interferences in the form of data breaches, corruption, and exposure of non­public information. This can occur at an individual level or organization level.

    Ping commands can be very useful for troubleshooting but can also be used as a method of

attack. Pings can be used in such a way that they cause vulnerable systems to freeze and crash. This can be accomplished by using the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) or any other IP ­based protocols. Malicious data packets are sent to the targeted system that exceed their maximum size and lead to an overflow in memory.

Phishing is an internet scam that baits a user to share sensitive information that is not

public such as passwords and credit card numbers (Vahid, 2017). Anyone with an email is

vulnerable to a phishing email scam. In this type of attack, attackers lure victims to fake pages

using social engineering techniques (Dadkhah, 2015). These scams can look like every day

emails from Amazon, Google or businesses that we typically do business with. Safeguarding

against this type of attack can be as simple are looking at the full email address where the email came from and looking for spelling and grammatical errors.

Passwords are used as a means of authentication to safeguard information on website,

information systems and social networks. Password cracking occurs through databases that are employee social engineering to obtain passwords. The Online Journal of Applied Knowledge Management, encourages effective password management by requiring periodic replacement, use of different passwords for every account, and discouraging from using personal information in passwords (Gafni, 2017). Password cracking can give intruders access to bank accounts, personal information, and other sensitive data.

Dadkhah, M., Sutikno, T., Jazi, M. D., & Stiawan, D. (2015). An introduction to vahid, F., & lysecky, S. (2017). Computing technology for all. Retrieved from zybooks.zyante.com/Phishings and Their Detection Approach. Telkomnika, 13(2), 373–380. https://doi­org.proxy­library.ashford.edu/10.12928/TELKOMNIKA.v13i2.1436

Gafni, R., Pavel, T., Margolis, R., & Weiss, B. (2017). Strong password? Not with your social

network data! Online Journal of Applied Knowledge Management, 5(1), 27–41.

https://doi­org.proxy­library.ashford.edu/10.36965/ojakm.2017.5(1)27­41

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2017). Computing technology for all. https://zybooks.zyante.com

Traveling Through a Network

 

A ping allows a user to send signals to another device or website on the network to see if it is active and the response time. The computer accomplishes this by using the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) to send out an echo sent to the destination device or website and gets back an echo reply if the device is active. Small packets of information pass through the routers in an attempt to reach their final location.  A router is a device that sends information from one device to another or website on the computer network. Pings are ideal for troubleshooting because they report information such as the number of packets sent, received, lost, and the amount of time if took roundtrip for the response back. If you ping a device and the response fails that indicates that the router or website is down. In the information returned you can identify what network the website or device is operating on.  For example, I pinged my business website and it showed that it was running off AT&T and the Shopify Platform. The Tracer command demonstrates the route a packet takes to the website or IP address desired. It traces all of the routers that the command passes through before it reaches its final destination. This is a good way to trouble shoot to determine which router of many could be down or causing an error along the way.

Domain name/IP address: Rakuten.co.jp/133.237.16.234

Number of Packets Sent: 4

Number of Packers Received: 4

Number of Packets Lost: 0

Range of Response Speeds:

-  Minimum: 147 Seconds

-  Maximum: 150 Seconds

-  Average:  147 Seconds

Domain name/IP address: Rakuten.co.jp/133.237.16.234

How many routers it passes through: 15

How long it takes to hop from router to router: Between 3 minutes and 150 minutes on average

If it failed before reaching its destination: N/A

In this week exercise I found that the pings and traces that I performed state side returned back with a quicker response time and passed through less routers.  Whereas the websites in Australia and in Japan passed through significantly more routers and took a longer time for the roundtrip to produce a response.

Documenting a Day

I begin my day at 6 AM by going to my local gym to get my daily exercise. This consist of cardio, hot yoga or weightlifting. This is a great way for me to kick start my day. I then go home, freshen up and get my daughter’s ready school. I enjoy the quality time I get to spend with them each morning discussing their dreams and preparing breakfast. Once the girls are taken care of I have my morning coffee and login into my laptop computer to begin working.  During the work week I spend most of my time working my corporate job at USAA, where I manage the oversight of third-party suppliers. I am dedicated eight hours each day to my full-time job. Throughout the eight hours I am:

§  Replying to emails

§  Coordinating regulator examinations

§  Performing ongoing monitoring

§  Conducting due diligence

§  Renegotiating and amending contracts

Toward the tail end of work, I spend time completing my academic assignments. I accomplish as much as I can so that I don’t consume so much of my time in the evenings doing schoolwork. During this time, I am mainly able to get through reading assignments and first drafts of writing assignments. During the evening hours is when I spend quality time with my family starting with dinner. After dinner and before bed we engage in family fun, such as:

§  Watching TV

§  Playing Games

§  Taking walks in the community

§  Dancing

§  Spending time in the backyard

Aside from the activities mentioned above I am also working on the eCommerce business throughout the day. This consist of marketing, mailing out gowns, searching for new inventory and enhancing the website.  At night I get to spend quality time with husband discussing our day and goal setting. We go to bed, wake up and do it all again.

Web/Mobile App Critique

 The audience for my Blog will be Shopify application (app) users. My blog will be  useful for small business owners, web designers and developers. Based on my  audience I intend to make design my blog in a way that it is informative and provides my readers with information and recommendations about the apps available on the Shopify  platform. Since my website will be geared toward users with different levels of  proficiency in information technology, I will design it in a way that even a novice would  feel comfortable reading my blog. I will be mindful not to use too much technical jargon  or acronyms. 

    The Techie R has a helpful step by step tutorial on YouTube for navigating in  Blogger. It shows how to create post, download and select themes and managing  settings (The Techie R, 2020). This is a great visual resource that will help me build my  blog.  In doing my research on other technical blogs it appears that a simple design is  best. Most of the blogs that I observed had a solid background color, mainly white, black or blue with one or two other accent colors for fonts and boarders. I will design my blog  in a similar way with a white background two different shades of green for fonts and  boarders.  This is in alignment with the current color scheme of Shopify. In one of the  tutorials that I watched it was recommended to begin each post with an image followed  by and introduction paragraph. Other imagery and video may be added throughout the  post where applicable to illustrate the discussion point. Followed by a conclusion  paragraph, as some please scroll to the end to read the conclusion before reading the  post from start to finish (Patel, 2020) The font for headers will stand out boldly from the  body of my paragraphs and I will use a legible font that is easy to read.

    The blog that I reviewed by Science Soft Professional Software was very well  designed.  It had a specific audience, and all the post were related to medical  technology.  The color scheme and layout of the page was idea to any reader.  All the  tags and categories were located at the top of the page. The tiles for each post were  uniform in they all had an animated image, post title, date and brief description.  InsideEVs, also was a well ­designed blog that was all about electric vehicles. I designer  was a minimalist and did not attempt to put to much on the page. Both examples  illustrated the effects of keeping things simple and help identify placement on my blog. 

    On the contrary Digitaltrends.com was a blog that had way too much going on. The blog was so wordy and unorganized. The blog has such a board range of topics such as  computing, mobile, gaming and smart homes. This made it difficult to navigate, although it was segmented into categorizes. This helped me hon in on a narrower discussion  point for my blog.  

    My key takeaways are: 

­ -  Keep it simple ­ 

-  Utilize the side bar for ‘call to actions'

-  Have a top bar ­ 

-  About section ­ 

-  Comment section ­ 

-  Make the blog accessible ­ 

-  Have the social icons scroll with the user 3 ­ 

-  Use plugins ­ 

-  Use vivid imagery

Science Soft Professional Software Development. (2021). https://www.scnsoft.com/bog

InsideEvs. (2021). https://www.insideevs.com Digital Trends. (2021). https://www.digitaltrends.com

The Techie R. (2020). How to create a blog using blogger. YouTube.  https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=Q9H‐8‐MQKpc 

Utke, D. (2020). Google’s blogger pros and cons. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEiRWraOejs Patel, N. (2020). How to create the perfect blog layout. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBcNQwjNuy

Programming Languages

Scratch Project

    Using Scratch for the first time was interesting.  It was a neat way to code games,  animation, stories and more. The design of the website made coding seem fun and  easy to follow. I explored the website as much as I could before I began working on my  own project. Although the website is designed for the beginner programmer in mind, I  still had difficulties. I struggled with how to align the commands together to make them  work. The most difficulty I experienced was with the different variables and knowing how to choose the appropriate event or control to make my Sprite do what I wanted it to. I  overcame these difficulties by referring to the tutorials on the website. The videos were  helpful with step by step instruction on how things such as changing size, adding  sounding and adding a variety of effects. I also referred to YouTube for additional video  tutorials.

    Through doing this week’s assignment I gained a better understanding about how to  use code to make animation come to life. Through coding I was able to control my  Sprites through commands that I created. Coding through Scratch was easier than  the activities in the textbook. Section 2.8 gave the fundamental knowledge of the  transistor which I was able to apply in scratch, using 0 and 1. The fun cartoon  animation and colorfulness of the Scratch website made it more user friendly than  the machine language, assembly language in the textbook exercises. Scratch is  designed in a way that children as young as 8 can begin coding. I personally found  the high-level language easiest to use.

    In machine language a CPU runs off 0s and 1s. In assembly language assembler is  automatically converts to machine language. Furthermore, high-level language  enables greater programmer productivity as it automatically converts assembly and  machine language. I think that high-level language is more popular because it is the  least manual method and allows higher productivity.